Giamona

This is an action in Admiralty brought by the libelants, the owners of the St. Christopher, against the owners of the Providenza. Both of these ships are fishing vessels. The St. Christopher became entangled in her own net which had been set and which contained about one hundred tons of fish. As a result, the St. Christopher was lying dead in the water. At the request of *355 the St. Christopher the Providenza came to her aid. A line was attached from the stern of the Providenza to the bow of the St. Christopher, but this failed to pull her off her nets. The line was then shifted to the stem of the St. Christopher, but this, too, failed. At the direction of those aboard the St. Christopher, the Providenza slacked off the line by putting its engine in neutral and ceasing its forward motion. The engineer of the Providenza then attempted to go forward by putting the engine back in “Forward”, but at this point a pin in the clutch chain broke, so that it was impossible to shift. The engineer went below to shift manually, but before this could be done the two vessels collided, causing the damage complained of in the libel.

It is the contention of the libel that the St. Christopher was…